SPL - Stroke Per Length

Personal crud:  This week we're down to one car.  My wife borrowed my keys and went on a run.  She hid them by a fence, and when she came back, they were gone.  She looked everywhere.  The keys are to a VW Beetle with the really expensive key system.  So we have to wait for 4 days until the key for the VIN can be cut in LA and sent to the dealership.  Major pain in the butt.  So I'm driving the van this week and it gets terrible gas mileage.

Then Cathi is going to Provo for BYU Women's Conference, so I'm going to play Mr. Mom for a couple days.  Which is OK, but there goes my swim on Friday.  At least I can put in a long one on Saturday to make up for it.

To top it off, I have a vicious head cold.  I'm coughing, have a runny nose and generally feel like crap.  Good thing is, I'm really feeding well and overdosing on Vitamin C as I go through a 1/2 gallon of freshly squeezed OJ a day.  I hope I can bounce back quickly.  This morning's swim was very short, but I also plan to swim BL on the way home for 1 mile.

Swimming stuff:

So yesterday I read this blog post from Terry Laughlin which got me thinking about my SPL.  I used to keep track of it a long time ago, but haven't actually counted it in over a year, so today I counted my SPL to see.  Here's the graph of the recommended SPL:

I'm 5'11" so I should be between 14-17 strokes per 25.

2000 free - count SPL
1000 back - count SPL
600 free


3600 yards total 

When I really concentrated on long, slow pulls I could get 14.  When I was swimming at what felt like a normal rate I would get 15.  When I got sloppy: 16.

When I moved to back I was almost always getting 15 SPL.  I was very consistent on the backstroke, more so than freestyle.